Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News Special guests of Liberty Mutual are treated to an up close concert performance by Charlie Daniels Friday night in Forsyth Park sponsored by Liberty Mutual Insurance.

Well, maybe not quite, but scores of Savannahians had a devilishly good time Friday night when The Charlie Daniels Band and Little Big Town played a free concert in the park.

With long hair, short summer dresses and cowboy boots, Savannah College of Art and Design students Carrye Hickey, 22, and Allison Hornberger, 25, were getting in the spirit as they trudged down toward the concert with a hot pink, monogrammed cooler. Inside? A handle of Jim Beam, bottles of Bud Light and lots of mixers. The plan, Hickey said, was to “day drink.”

“Any reason to go to the park, we’re there,” Hornberger added.

By the time Charlie Daniels fired up his fiddle, a few minutes after 8 p.m., the park was packed with tents and chairs set up within a few yards of the tennis courts.

No one questioned in the crowd could recall the name of the band's opening number.

“We only know one song,” Tricia Gossett, a Savannah resident, said with a laugh, referring to Daniels' 1979 hit “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

Enthroned behind a table of strawberries, cheese, meatballs, dip, cookies, brownies and a meat platter, Savannahian Lisa McGalliard said “that good old Georgia song” is what inspired her and roughly 30 friends to set up camp in the park, arriving at 10 a.m. to stake out their spot.

“This is fellowship,” McGalliard said.

As he patrolled the park, Savannah-Chatham police Capt. Carl Ramey marveled at the complexity of many concert goers set-ups — which included flags to locate a camp among the sea of people, tiki torches, mosquito tents.

“I thought this one guy was moving in to Drayton Street,” Ramey joked. “I was going to ask to check his deed.”

Thirty Savannah-Chatham officers patrolled the park, according to Sgt. Mike Nichols, who organized security. Nichols said the size of the crowd, while large, was about as expected. Although people began partying hours before the first act, The Charlie Daniels Band, took the stage, Nichols said no notable disturbances had been reported.